The charges alleged he had counselled others to commit murder, assault or mischief for the benefit of the Islamic State.

While Justice Bruce Butler found Hamdan’s comments offensive and misguided, he said the Crown’s case fell short in proving that Hamdan was attempting to incite violence or acts of terrorism on behalf of ISIS.

But Hamdan, a Fort St. John resident until he was arrested in July 2015, was not freed from custody. Instead, he was transferred to the custody of the Canada Border Services Agency which continues to investigate his immigration status.

At Hamdan’s request, the Immigration and Refugee Board issued a ban on publishing photos of him.

Acquitted B.C. ISIS supporter fights to stay in Canada

Days after being acquitted of terrorism charges, Othman Hamdan appeared before the Immigration and Refugee Board on Tuesday to begin his fight to stay in Canada.

The Canada Border Services Agency is investigating whether Hamdan should be allowed to remain here after Facebook posts supporting the Islamic State and an admission he was once involved in an international hashish smuggling ring.

A Jordanian citizen, Hamdan came to B.C. from the U.S. in 2002 and made a successful refugee claim based on his conversion to Christianity. He later rejected his new religion.

Canada Border Services official Randal Hyland told Refugee Board member Trent Cook that Hamdan, 35, is neither a Canadian citizen nor a permanent resident of Canada.

And he said the agency had grounds to believe that Hamdan was inadmissible as a security risk as well as because of his serious criminality.

Hyland asked at a detention hearing Tuesday that Hamdan remain incarcerated until a full admissibility hearing can be held before the Refugee Board. The detention hearing was adjourned until next week.

Last Friday, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Bruce Butler acquitted Hamdan on four terrorism charges stemming from dozens of Facebook comments he posted in 2014 and 2015 supporting ISIS and lone-wolf attacks in Canada, the U.S. and other countries.

Butler said that Hamdan’s posts may be offensive to Canadians, but that doesn’t mean the Fort St. John man was encouraging or inciting acts of murder, assault and mischief as alleged by the Crown.

Despite Hamdan’s acquittal, he remains in jail. He was transferred to the custody of Canada Border Services on Friday afternoon.

His lawyer, Erica Olmstead, argued Tuesday against his continued detention, saying it was unfair to keep him in jail given the not guilty verdict in the criminal case.

She said if he is released into the community, he intends to stay at a shelter and apply for a work permit until he is “back on his feet.”

Olmstead won a ban on publication of any photo or image of Hamdan, who appeared in red prison garb escorted by two border agents.

After the proceedings, Hamdan threatened to sue a Postmedia reporter “if you publish any photo.”

Hyland pointed to some of the comments Hamdan made on Facebook that first caught the eye of RCMP investigators in the fall of 2014.

One comment appeared to be suggesting a dam in Revelstoke and a bridge in Ontario would be easy targets for terrorists.

“This dam supplies most of the west coast of the North American continent with power. The number of police officers in this town is between 20-30. Closest military base is 200 kilometres. Security is weak,” Hamdan wrote in September 2014.

“There is a bridge — Nipigon River Bridge near a village Nipigon, Ont. It crosses a river and connects Eastern Canada with its West and it also carries a railroad. This bridge divides the country in the middle and its repair will take years. Security protection … zero.”

In another post, Hamdan appeared to be inciting violence through lone-wolf attacks, Hyland said.

One of Hamdan’s posts

On Feb. 25, 2015, Hamdan posted an ISIS message on his Defeat of the Alliance Facebook page, which said: “Our advice to supporters in the #US … carry your actions there … swiftly lone wolves activate all across #USA.”

Hyland noted that the burden of proof to determine whether someone is inadmissible to remain in Canada is lower than the “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard used by criminal courts.

He said Canada Border Services wants to review Butler’s written reasons, expected to be released later this week, as part of its ongoing investigation into Hamdan. And the agency doesn’t yet know if federal prosecutors intend to appeal the verdict.

In other Facebook posts, Hamden praised Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, who attacked Parliament Hill on Oct. 22, 2014, as well as Martin Couture-Rouleau, who drove a car into two Canadian soldiers in Quebec two days before.

The same day as the Ottawa attack, Hamdan wrote “a Muslim brother is martyred by the Canadian police after he killed a Canadian Soldier in retaliation to Canada’s crimes in Iraq.”

He said Canada is “terrified”.

Butler noted that “these posts are difficult for the average Canadian to read or understand. This is because Mr. Hamdan expresses support for the actions of lone wolf terrorists and the reasons he gives for saluting these actions defy logic.

“The suggestion that it is rational or acceptable for someone to kill unsuspecting non-combatants in a civil setting is repugnant. However, the posts do not contain statements that could be considered active inducements and encouragement for readers to go and commit similar offences.”

How does the rcmp feel about the newest ndp leader having known ties to surrey khalistan terrorists who brandish firearms and pictures showing terrorists as martyers. Sikhs are the threat people are ignoring in canada. They did it once, ans they are headed towards doing it again. They are brainswashing theae mindless youth with guns ans luxury cars

I haven’t been on time off in two months my friend. And I am not complaining about anything. Many people care about this ISIS supporter. But I know the blog folks just want gang stories so I haven’t posted some of the others I have done on other topics.

Brown boys in the street? This idiot is bragging about being a scumbag gangster drug dealing piece of shit? Good for you Proud Sikh, i’m sure your family and community are overjoyed with your decisions in life.

I sincerely hope they deport his bombing Canada ass..I agree that most of the garbage on f/b is pure rhetoric..from what I’ve read I truly believe he was inticing others to carry out these misguided deeds.. it’s unfortunate that the Koran preaches that a martyr will live in the upper eshelpn of afterlife chillin with Mohammad and the dozens of virgins endowed to him.. it’s truly sad that Islam is misconstrued as a hateful religion.. growing up for 4 years in the Middle East reveals the true nature of Islam and most of its followers.. I detest what the states and Israel has done to a part of the world with incredible history and wonderful people..

I feel like writing a book or doing something dedicated to all the people I personally knew by way of just growing up in east Van born in the 80’s brown, yellow, red, black, white, mixed doesn’t matter.

Gotta be hundreds of names on the list if you sit down and count em all out.

We all have kids now and the smart ones really just grew up. If you’re 29 31 35 46 whatever and your getting kicked out of clubs from Barwatch and you have kids at home who will be doing the same thing… no job showing the example. Some guys make decent close/over 100k gross net whatever … most guys aren’t making 100 grand every 30 days like I saw someone write on here. But hey I could be wrong, anything is possible.
Most don’t even make that and really are the handi capped losers of society, like the ones you can’t stand to be around cuz they have a chip on their shoulder they’re always looking over.